Can You Play Monster Hunter: World Solo? Here’s How

Monster Hunter is one of the most popular video game titles coming from Capcom as it is an incredibly fun experience that lets you hunt gigantic monsters and dragons with unreasonably large weapons. One of the most popular entries in the Monster Hunter franchise is Monster Hunter: World, which is the first game to feel open-world. Games like Monster Hunter: World are great for playing co-op with your friends. But can you play Monster Hunter: World solo?

It is possible to play Monster Hunter: World solo. The quests were made to be solo-able in the sense that you can finish them on your own. In fact, the monsters are weaker when you solo them because they tend to scale around 2.5x in terms of HP and 2x in terms of damage in multiplayer. 

Monster Hunter: World was a breakthrough in the Monster Hunter franchise because it allowed us to feel an open-world setup in a video game series that didn’t have this feature. But it did change a feature in the sense that the village/guild quests setup was changed. That means that you have to choose whether you can solo or co-op your way through a quest.

Can You Solo In Monster Hunter: World?

One of the most popular video game franchises released by Capcom is Monster Hunter, which is basically a game that allows you to wield all sorts of amazingly cool yet unproportionally large weapons that you can use to hunt monsters that threaten the village. Of course, the monsters are also large enough as most of them are incredibly huge wyverns and dragons that you would think could swallow you whole.

One of the things that make Monster Hunter so fun to play is the multiplayer or co-op aspect of the game. You get to hunt with several different hunters so that you can essentially gang up on a monster.

The first Monster Hunter game was released in 2004 on the PS2, and the franchise has been releasing new games in the series ever since. Belonging to the fifth generation of Monster Hunter games, Monster Hunter: World was released in 2018 and became the first game in the series to feature an open-world map setting wherein there are no loading screens in between each location on the map.

With that said, it became a seminal entry to the Monster Hunter series as it included amazing graphics and improved gameplay on top of the fact that the map has become more interactive than ever before. And some of the different mechanics in Monster Hunter: World were brought to Monster Hunter: Rise, the next entry in the fifth generation.

Another change that people noticed in Monster Hunter: World is the fact that the village quests, which follow the storyline in the previous games, no longer exist. In past games, the village quests were the ones that you could only play solo because they involved the storyline. Meanwhile, the guild quests are the ones that you can play with your friends. 

Instead, in World, all of the quests were streamlined into one. That means that there are no village/guild quests distinctions. So, with that said, can you play Monster Hunter: World solo and without the help of other people?

Of course, you can play Monster Hunter: World solo and without playing with other people. In fact, the game was made for people to be able to play it on their own. That’s because the original release of Monster Hunter: World on the PS4 and Xbox One required players to have a PS Plus or an Xbox Game Pass subscription. Those who didn’t have a subscription for either of those could only play the game solo.

Meanwhile, PC players don’t need any kind of subscription to play Monster Hunter: World. All that was needed for players to play solo if they were online was to set the session to “Private” so that other people won’t be able to join it. Meanwhile, for those who do have PS Plus or Xbox Game Pass, you can also do the same if you don’t want to play Monster Hunter: World together with other people whenever you are starting a quest or hunt.

Can You Solo Monster Hunter: World Iceborne?

In September of 2019, and after more than a year-and-a-half since the release of Monster Hunter: World, Iceborne was released as an expansion game that introduced a new map, new monsters, and a new difficulty to the game. So, considering that Monster Hunter: World Iceborne is a more difficult game, can you solo it?

Just like the fact that you can solo the original Monster Hunter: World game, the same can be said about Iceborne because it only follows the same mechanics as the base game but with a few changes and additions that only make the entire experience better. As such, regardless of your chosen platform, you can still play Monster Hunter: World Iceborne solo without the help of other people.

Is Monster Hunters: World Solo-able?

One of the best things that they changed in Monster Hunter: World was the streamlining of all of the quests into one. That means that you can choose to solo or all co-op all of the quests in the game, depending on your preference. But does that mean that the game is solo-able?

The fact that the quests were streamlined into one means that the game was meant to be solo-able for any player. That’s because when you start a game solo, the monster is scaled for solo play. This basically means that the difficulty setting of the quest is catered for solo players.

However, when you fire up the SOS signal mid-quest or when you start up a quest with fellow players, the scaling will change. This will make the monsters around 2.5x harder to kill and 2x stronger than solo play. As such, the monsters will be scaled for multiple players so that the quest will be much more challenging as compared to solo quests.

Of course, the fact that the quests were streamlined into one means that Monster Hunter: World was indeed made to be solo-able. That’s because not everyone can afford to pay for a PS Plus or an Xbox Game Pass subscription. And while the PC version doesn’t require a subscription, there are still players that would rather play the game solo than with other people.

Is Monster Hunter: World Worth Playing Solo?

It is very important to note that Monster Hunter: World is worth playing solo because it is only through solo gaming that you would be able to learn how to properly play the game without having to rely on other people to bail you out.

Playing the game solo will allow you to learn the moves and tendencies of the different monsters in the game so that you will be able to learn how to counter their moves and when to find the right openings for a quick counterattack. And the most challenging part about solo play is that the monster’s attention will be fixed on you, and that means that you are forced to become better so that you will learn how to evade the monster’s attacks and when you should charge in when you find an opening.

You can also test out a lot of different builds and learn how to use certain combo moves whenever you are playing solo. This isn’t always viable when you are playing co-op because different players probably won’t fit your build or play style.

There are also some instances when playing solo can be better than playing co-op. The fact is that, in a lot of cases, you probably don’t know who is playing with you and how good they are in the game. You are only allowed to get knocked out twice in the game as the third “death” basically fails the quest. And this mechanic carries over to multiplayer as the three-death rule covers all four players.

As such, there are some instances when the players you are playing with are not as good as you, and that will force them to get “carted” out of the game more often than not. So, even if you yourself don’t end up getting knocked out by the monster, the ones you are playing with might end up getting carted out quite often if they are not as good as you.

Of course, there are some instances when playing with other people can be fun, especially when you are up against a particularly tough monster that you find too challenging to kill solo. While it might still be possible for you to defeat that monster solo, having three other players around will make things easier, especially if they are also particularly skilled or good at Monster Hunter as well.

So, in a sense, multiplayer can be a double-edged sword with benefits and disadvantages. On the other hand, playing Monster Hunter: World solo will allow you to hunt and get good at your own pace. It can be worth it to learn the ins and outs of the game on your own before you try your hand at playing multiplayer. After all, you don’t want to be a burden to your team by being the one to always get carted out in hunts.